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Terrible experience with BLS international Houston

The Indian Consulate has outsourced passport and visa services to BLS International. I am having a terrible experience with BLS International Houston office. It seems like there is no way to contact their offices. I had sent in two applications for renunciation of Indian passport for my son and myself. My application was received by BLS International 4 weeks ago as per the UPS tracking system. However when I try to track my application on the BLS website, the message states that "No records were found". I have tried calling them on the number mentioned on the CFI Houston phone message- 1-888-683-7831 and also other numbers given on BLS International website for the Houston numbers. When I try calling 1-888-683-7831, I always get the message "Your call cannot completed at this time'.

These are the numbers listed on the BLS website for their Houston office.
+1 832 815 3299
1-800-584-8865
Helpline: 8328153319
The first two numbers are non-working numbers and when I dial the third number I always get the message "The person you are calling cannot accept calls at this time". I have sent 6 emails to the enquiry email address listed on their website and have not received any response from them.

According to the processing times mentioned on the BLS website, I should have received the Renunciation certificates for my son and my application in about 15 business days. It has been 20 business days and I have no way to tell if they are even processing my application. For paying $182.70 per application for getting a renunciation certificate, it seems like we are getting terrible customer service.

How can I find some information about my application status? I have written a complaint email to the Indian Consulate in Houston and left a voice message but have not heard from them either.

I tried to two 832 numbers and got what you did. I got a message from the 800 number which at first said to wait for a rep but as I waited the message changed to call back "after some time" or check the webiste site for application status.

So sorry to hear this. I am so very glad I hired a lawyer to get my visa from BLS Chicago as he knows people in the consulate which would have been a fail safe measure. This looks like the best $500.00 lawyer fee I've ever spent as the stress level was immeasurably decreased. Do you know a lawyer in Houston who deals with immigration issues, preferably and Indian lawyer who may know people in the consulate? Wish you had my guy out there. Good luck man. Larry

I'm a recent college grad leaving this Thursday to travel for four months, first in Portugal then in India. I had done the research for my India visa last winter and, since it seemed to be a pretty stright forward process, neglected to begin the application process until late July once the system had already switched to BLS.

I was in a hurry to get my application in and it wasn't until after I had already sent it (priority mail) from Colorado to Houston that I saw this forum. Reading everyone elses stories set me into a fit of panic because I had exactly three weeks (or 15 business days) to get my passport back before my flight. Like everyone else I tried every phone number on the website and couldn't get through. I did however send at least 5 emails to the address provided on their website and another couple to rattanw@blsinternational.com who has posted on this forum.

I sent these emails on a Friday, the next afternoon (Saturday!) I got an email from Rattan saying that he had gotten my plea for help and someone would be in contact with me soon. A few hours later I got a call from the manager of the Houston office, an incredibly nice woman, who told me that she had my passport in hand, would deliver it to the consulate Monday, and have it in the mail to me by Tuesday.

Up until this point I hadn't been able to "Track My Application" online caliming 'no records found.' Monday this was still the case, but by Tuesday evening my Application information appeared with the status set to "Dispached via Couier" or something similar. That Wednesday I was able to find my tracking number from the return envelope I sent on the USPS website. By Friday morning I had my passport back with my tourist visa!

In total it took about two weeks or exactally 10 business days, from the day they recieved my passport to the day I got it back. I can only speak from my experience with the Houston office, and obviously it is far from perfect, but I experienced very helpful people at BLS in the form of Ratan and the branch manager Rhonda.

I took the time to get an account on this site and write this review because I think it's much eaiser to write when you are angry and frusturated to release some of that emotion, but it's harder to sit down and take the time to talk about how you had a mostly pleasent, somewhat stressful, but all around good experience.

UNBELIEVABLE!! These people are horrible. First of all the BLS Website is awful. Compare theirs to the visa company handling visas to India from the UK and you can see what I mean. It is confusing, missing information, mis-leading (to say the least) and buggy. You fill in information and click save and it deletes everything on a frequent basis - super time consuming and frustrating to fill out the same forms over and over and over.

THEN when you check the website for status, they don't update anything so you can seldom FIND your application status as active let alone get status. Everything has a 2-3 day delay at best.

So then you try and CALL. I tried over 25 times to phone BLS International's main office or Houston office (where we were forced to go as residents of Colorado). 281-974-3929, 281-974-3959 and 855-436-0725 were all numbers I used. I also tried email - never ever received a response in weeks from ANYONE even though they make a big deal about collecting your emails. The phone numbers go to a mailbox which is ALWAYS full - never once could I leave a message.

THEN when you finally happen to call and reach someone - I have spoken with nearly a dozen different BLS employees including "Supervisor" Niel - who ultimately did nothing. They all promise and promise things - no problem maam is their favorite response - and if you actually believe them you are a fool. They do NOTHING they say they will do, they NEVER call back, they NEVER do anything they promise and they are all useless.

I am amazed anyone ever gets a visa from this company - they are a travesty and are negatively hurting US tourism to India single handled. I am starting to wonder if they TRAIN people to lie and make things up. I have NEVER worked with a company so unprofessional, unethical and bad. I am sorry to have ever considered a trip to India - I will never go there after this experience.

I have to say you have taught me a lot about patience. My husband and I did receive our tourist visas a little over four weeks after we applied. Thank you very much for that, we are really excited to go to India. However, I do have some suggestions on how you could make your service more accommodating...

We applied via post because we live 12 hours drive from the nearest Canadian BLS office. (vancouver or surrey)

-When we used your online postal fee calculator on your website, it told us an amount that was $60 higher than what we needed to pay. We 100% for sure entered all our information in properly, because we did it multiple times to confirm the price. When BLS received our applications, they wrote us an email informing us we had over paid. We either needed to cancel this bank note and send them a new one (while they held our passports) or give them permission to absorb the extra money. We were more concerned with a smooth visa process than the extra $60 so we told them they could keep the money. My suggestion would be to update your calculator so there is no more room for error.

-We were 100% in the dark throughout the entire process. Their tracking system on their website kept saying our confirmation numbers didn't exist and whenever i would call the BLS employees would tell me they had no record of our passport numbers on file. I would like to say thank you to BLS for always answering the phone and speaking kindly to me. I received no confirmation that they received my email indicating that they could absorb the extra money from the bank notes. I called multiple times to make sure they knew it was okay to do so, in the hopes that our applications weren't on hold or anything but no one knew anything. I emailed called and when i inquired about possibly faxing them my request for confirmation of receipt i was laughed at, and told if BLS wont reply to your email they will surely never reply by fax. Everyone told me it is just that the application process was difficult and they were very busy, too busy in fact, to even update their own computer systems. I was told multiple times that BLS would send the Indian embassy a request for status on my application and that I would get a phone call within the next 24 hours. This clearly never happened. I do feel though most of the BLS employees I dealt with were quite friendly on the service, I do understand what everyone is complaining about relative to their apathy. No one ever empathized with my worries of a potentially lost passport, and no one ever offered to do anything to help me find answers. I ultimately had to except that the worst case scenario would be that my passport was lost and that I would not be able to fly to India. Which fortunately, because I live in Canada, I have a safe, healthy, and secure home that I am not trying to escape or anything. So staying put is disappointing, but not the end of the world. I would suggest to BLS that they hire more support staff so they have the resources to keep their applicants informed.

If I were to apply for an Indian Visa ever again I would physically make my way to the BLS office (I believe BLS is the only company you can go through now) and just pay for a rush visa service. This way I could receive my visa within two working days and I would save myself the grief of being in the dark. If this is not an option for you, apply for a 6 month tourist visa, and get it in the mail as many months in advance as you can.

My experience so far with BLS has been extremely frustrating. I had spent extra monies on overnight delivery so that application could be in BLS office early Monday morning for their kind attention. Little did I know that after 10 working days, my application would still not be traceable on their website. Customer Service is of absolute no use. Since the records are not on the website, customer service is also not able to help. There is no way to speak to anyone else. Only one out of 3 listed numbers work. There is no transparency in the process at all. I am not sure if it will help to go to the NY office and see where my paper work is. Travisa was 1000 times better. I had applied for my son’s PIO card via mail last year and within 10 days I received the card. I wish there were other ways than just to go via BLS to get the services. I would be more than happy to pay extra monies for better service.

Like everybody else here my experience with BLS was not a happy one. I had most of the issues listed above from nobody answering the calls, to lost prepaid shipping label, to not knowing if the passport itself was lost.

Anyway I signed in here not to just crib about how bad BLS is but what can or may work.

1. Persistence was key in our case. I called the Houston office everyday. Mind you every single day and sometimes every hour. I was fortunate enough one day somebody picked and I got to know the passport application was lying there (relieved!) and they asked me send missing documents. No communication whatsoever after this call. I sent the documents, email the person every other day. No replies.

2. Complains. Me n my husband called their help line number and talked to supervisor. They said they would look into it. (Supervisor's involved). But no status updates. Again we called everyday and Yes, sometimes the call never went through, sometimes the calls were dropped, sometimes the supervisor was busy and so on..

3. Finally we stumbled on an employee's email (RattanW) and it worked like a charm. At last we sent him an email asking them to just sent back the passport without visa and we no longer care for one. (We figured there are other private companies that do visa, although they are a little expensive. We would rather spend more money and get some reliable service). Anyway since we did not have passport we could do nothing. Rattan replied immediately and copied all Houston managers. Immediately I started getting responses from people who I had emailed earlier. So the VISA was approved and we received our passport in 3 working business day.

I hope the visa process becomes smoother in future and BLS employees understand they cannot keep loosing documents and return shipping packages. It's all important document that we send to you guys, it may not be important to YOU but it is to somebody. AND yes we pay for all the prepaid shipping and it is NOT CHEAP and it's SOMEBODY's hard earned money, I had to pay extra money to send another overnight return shipping label because somebody apparently at BLS thought they can loose it! So please keep that in mind. (If any BLS employee is reading this review!!!)

This third class company is operating in US soil. Lets get some form of US authorities involved. Start with BBB. Complain, Complain, Complain with your experiences. Send letters to congressmen. Do something.. This is a security threat to US as they seem like purposely playing with US passports without a damn care.

BLS Customer service people are the total LIERS I have ever found. These guys are trained to lie. This is a shame, I feel cheated big time. This company sure will not survive a long time here in the USA.. They better know that and fix themselves immediately. Do not say we just started some 5 months ago, be organized and try to follow some procedures. Learn from China or any other Asian countries. They are very organized in their visa processing. How come INDIA is like this? This all seems like a drama. Why is this so difficult? If you cant stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Someone else will cook.

Travisa has to go thru BLS however. Still it is better oi let them do the headache work for you.

India has taken steps to begin a visa upon arrival for 40 countries including the US though when that actually will begin I don't know. This means of course no more BLS for India. Again the big question is when.

We completed the on line application and made our appointment with BLS in Atlanta for this last Monday.
It took about an hour to be processed with no snags (but I was compulsive about following the directions). Once your paperwork is reviewed, you are sent to the biometrics room for a picture and very thorough fingerprinting. They said it will take 5 days to process our application, although as we were leaving, a gentleman had just picked up his passport. He said that his application took two weeks to process and he had to kick up some dust at the consulate as he was leaving for India the next day! So, allow enough time so you don't start your journey stressed out! Cost was $67.70 per person. So far, the tracking has worked and our passports are at the consulate. Stay tuned!

Well India last fall passed a measure to begin a visa on arrival for 40 countries including the US. When it will begin I don't know but BLS will be out of the picture and most who have dealt with them will know why.

I believe I read a news story that BLS has lost the contract, but until that transition to (?) happens, people will need to deal with them. Sometime in 2014 India is also supposed to offer more tourist visas on arrival. If that portion of the "business" is eased, perhaps whomever takes over will be able to concentrate on the rest with more efficiency.

I read many stories about BLS international and their poor customer service. I have recently gone through Indian Visa Application process through BLS international (at Atlanta) for my child and my experience is highly positive. I would like to clear the confusion about the visa application process which is very unclear and confusing on BLS’s website. Here is my experience, hope this helps. Although I applied for visa, many of the following will be applicable for Passport Application process as well, so hopefully you will find it useful.

1. Fill the visa application form and print it with color printer. If the visa application is for a minor, parents sign the second page below the signature line, minor doesn’t sign. This page is also notarized. Minor of 5 years or older must sign at the bottom of the photograph on the first page; other minors can give thumb print. Photograph should be of 2 in x 2 in standard passport size, pasted (glued) on the box provided. If you have a passport photo, you can scan and upload it provided it meets the specification (size in pixel and megabits which will be provided when you upload your photo). Photo upload is not mandatory, but attaching the photo is.

2. You need to send notarized photocopies of all supporting documents.

3. Before you start filling the BLS order form, make sure you have the following items on hand: (a) the airway bill number of the package you are sending to BLS, (b) the airway bill number of the return shipment, (c) money order or cashier check information.

4. Airway Bill (AB): BLS wants you to send your application package with a trackable envelope and also wants you to enclose a trackable envelope inside it for the return shipment. I have used FedEx. You cannot send a hand written FedEx AB or an AB with credit card number on it. Therefore you must create an account in FedEx. Follow these steps: Go to FedEx and create an account by clicking New Customer and following the instructions, login to FedEx account and go to Create Shipment, and enter the following information.

To ship your package to BLS:

1- From: Your address.
2- To: BLS address. Click “Perform Detailed Address Check” to view the correct address profile. FedEx shows correct street address with North/South/NE/SE etc and also correct 5+4 digit zip code; but you can simply select the entered address since FedEx always finds the correct address.
3- Package and Shipment Details: Ship Date – you can create label at most 10 days in advance, i.e. you can enter at most 10 days from today and you have to ship by that day. It is not a problem for you when shipping to BLS. I entered same day of shipping since I was sure to send to on the same day. Enter $100 declared value, 0.5 lb weight, select service type (e.g. FedEx Express Saver) and package type (e.g. FedEx Envelope).
4- Billing Details: Bill Transportation To: My Account. Your account information is printed here, i.e. your credit card in your account will be charged but the credit card information will not be printed on the shipping label. On your shipping label “Bill to Sender” will be printed.
Special Service: I selected Signature Not Required since you don’t know whether someone will be there or not at BLS to sign and if they miss it whether someone will pick up from FedEx or not.
Select Pickup/Drop-Off option, Email Notifications and click view Rates and Transit Times.
5- Complete your Shipment: You can keep a shipment profile if you want and then click “Ship”; it takes you to the next page where you can print the shipping label. The shipping label has barcodes of destination address and tracking number.

To create return shipment label from BLS to your home address:

Following the above steps, but reverse the From and To address field (i.e. From should contain BLS address, To should contain your address). When you provide Ship Date, enter the date which is 10 days from today. Here is a catch. You don’t know when they are going to ship back to you. It may be well over the 10 days. In my case they shipped my passport back exactly at the 10th day; I don’t know If it was by luck or not. I don’t know what happens if they ship after 10th day, whether the shipping label will still be valid or not. I called customer support and they told me that shipping labels are valid until 30 days after the shipping date specified which should cover most cases, but I am not 100% sure. My personal feeling is that FedEx should always pick up the package even it is shipped after the shipping date date. But please verify it and let me know. Unfortunately, FedEx doesn’t allow creating labels for any indefinite date of shipment.

Note the tracking numbers of the two labels. These are the Airway Bill numbers.

5. Fill the BLS order form:
- Select Location where you are sending your application
- Web Reference No: this is the number printed on your visa application form
- Application Type: Postal. Airway Bill No: Enter the tracking number of the FedEx shipping label that you created for sending your application to BLS.
- To obtain delivery service directly online with FedEx, Please Click: DO NOT click here since you already created return shipment label with FedEx. This is confusing and do not attempt to enter anything.
- Travel Plan: Even you are traveling after several months, you don’t have to choose among those shown.
- Prepaid Delivery: Yes, if you are sending by postal mail and you are expecting them to send your passport back. Enter No, if you are scheduling appointment, but for me it was all by post. Airway Bill No: Enter the tracking number of the return shipment you created.
- Select Nationality (USA) and Service Detail (Visa).
- Personal Details: Full name, Passport No, Email, Phone, Payment Detail: Enter payment method and check number.
- Save the form. This will send you an email with the filled up BLS order form and a return shipping label. This shipping label is a 3 in x 2 in label containing the passport number and a tracking number for BLS. Cut this label and attach on top of the FedEx envelope which you are sending to BLS.

6. Gather the documents (check website for the order): application form, BLS order form, postal application checklist form, document checklist form, notarized photocopies of the documents, official check, copy of the official check, shipping label of the return envelope, photocopy of the shipping label of the return envelope. And of course include your Passport! Put the documents together with a paper clip. Do not staple them, but you can staple the two pages of the visa application form together.

7. Go to a FedEx shipping center and ask two Express Envelopes. Attach the two shipping labels on the two envelopes using a clear plastic cover which you will get from the shipping center. Put the documents, the passport and the return envelope in the envelope you are sending to BLS. You will find that both envelopes are of same size, so you may have to fold the return envelope inside. Attach the BLS shipping label (with BLS tracking number sent to you by BLS via email) on top of the envelope sending to BLS. Also attach a slip of paper with “Visa Department” printed on top of the envelope so that it reaches the correct desk at BLS.

8. You can start tracking your package when it is picked up by FedEx.

My visa application reached BLS after 2 days via FedEx Express Saver and BLS took 3 days to process including one day by the consulate to process passport. BLS sent back passport on the 7th day and reached me after 2 days via FedEx 2-day service. All together, it took 10 days (8 business days) after sending passport to get it back with visa.

Happy you had good luck but am happier still I got my Indian Visa last spring before the change in company.

Not only is this board reporting problems with BLS but on one of the cruise boards, of the five people that had to get an Indian visa for the cruise, since the company change, four had good luck but one has had his passport lost and is now scrambling to get it replaced thanks to BLS. Hmmm..1 in 5 or 20%, makes you wonder.

I have read several travel boards for a number of years now. Visas questions come up frequently. Never have read of as much trouble filling out and getting a visa as has been posted on various boards since BLS took over the process for India. And this has been going on for months and doesn't seem to be getting better!

The consulate was doing an excellent job before these CRAPs taking over....why india is going in this worst way...the customer care people are real crap and doesn't know anything about the process. they just read out what is there in tracking site....PLEASE INDIA PLEASE DO something good for us.

recently called the people and no good response...no one responding the phone call which listed in BLS Houston office.

I would not waste my time anymore at ridiculous visa outsourcing company...I applied directly to visa service and got my visa within a week. Anyone who needs can contact atlanta@expressvisaservices.com who did my visa.

No one should be dealing with BLS at his point. The new contractor is Cox and Kings, and I understand things are going smoothly. You can use the visa service mentioned above or any other visa service, but they will still have to go through Cox and Kings so you will be paying two companies rather than one.

I have read all the comments in this sections. I am not sure if anyone is in a similar situation like me.
I immigrated to US in 2008. I became citizen in 2013 (by naturalization). Once I got my US passport I went to BLS Atlanta (Walk-in Process) for renunciation of Indian Passport in Oct 2013. I was told you will get back your Indian passport with Cancelled stamp and the renunciation certificate in mail. I never got those documents till this date. I kept on calling them they told me they are not sure and asked me check the tracking status. The tracking status from day 1 till date shows "No record found!". I got married in Oct 2014.I have a new US passport (I took my husband's last name). I want to go to India in August. I cannot get Tourist visa until I get my renunciation certificate. I am not sure to do. I really need help for anyone who knows what to do or was in the same boat like me. If anyone knows any lawyers who can help me in this please reply with that. I really need help its been so long for a 2 week process. Please help me.

We lost my wife's Indian passport and naturalization cert so we had to make a police report to verify this, get the report and then we used a lawyer to help us with the paper work. To this day we have those papers from the consulate in our safe deposit box. We found an Indian lawyer but we are in Chicago so it was not too hard. Are you in ATL? If so I would imagine there is a sizable Indian population there. Check out the local Indian papers for ads or just google for them.

We are so glad this is behind us. It was a painful process and when we had to go thru this was before BLS was in the picture. We went thru Travisa. There was some gal there who basically did not want to be bothered processing our visa but we went over here and used the same lawyer who knew people in the consulate who assured him we would get her visa.

I did called them and they are not responding appropriately. I have also emailed ckgs (the new contracted company). They have opened a new ticket and are looking into my case. But I am not sure if they can really help me in this. I am in ATL but I will be moving to NJ in few weeks and I am trying to find a lawyer from there. I can work with your lawyer if he doesn't require my physical presence. I called Travisa, they told me we cannot do anything until you get your renunciation certificate because they have to go through BLS or CKGS now.